On 4 September the Rideauinstitute.ca blog discussed key pieces of legislation upcoming in the Senate, including in particular Bill C-47, on Canada’s arms export policy, and highlighted the key role that civil society can and must play in strengthening it.

Where there is a substantial risk that exports could be misused to commit or facilitate serious violations or abuses of internationally recognized human rights, or serious violations of international humanitarian law, an export permit should be denied. Canada should not compromise human security for the benefit of commercial interests. (page 22)

And, in fact, the Liberal government has now amended Bill C-47 to introduce just such a rigorous test, albeit with some troubling limitations, as reported in earlier blog posts.

But the Senate Report goes much further than this one amendment.

In order to ensure that the Government has the information and tools to effectively apply the new human rights test, the Committee calls on Global Affairs Canada to:

consult stakeholders, including civil society and academics, in the development of assessment tools for use in the export permit application process;

regularly consult with stakeholders to provide information on the human rights situation in various countries and provide formal channels for the submission of information regarding the end-use and end-users of proposed exports; and

work with stakeholders including civil society to explore “contractual” mechanisms and other ways to better monitor end-use and end-users of military goods exported from Canada.

It goes on to make a series of innovative recommendations to remedy this disturbing misuse of taxpayer monies. [See pages 32–36.]

This report could not be more timely as Canadaendures reprisals from Saudi Arabiafor its diplomatic activity on behalf of Saudi women’s rights advocates, while continuing to export a new generation of armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia, even as UN Experts releasea new reportcondemning that country for war crimes in Yemen. — RI President Peggy Mason

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